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Macon Phillips, the White House's director of New Media
Photo courtesy of The Associated Press

Want to reach millions of Americans instantly? Try using the
hashtag #BarackObama in a tweet.

Even before Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's 44th
President, he was a big fan of social
media. On Election Day in 2008, for instance, Obama had
380 percent more Facebook fans than his
rival John McCain (R., Ariz.). So it's little wonder why
today's White House has an entire staff dedicated to operating
a YouTube channel, filtering photos on Instagram, crowdsourcing petitions on
We The People, hosting Q&As through
Twitter and even hang outs with voters on Google+.

I spoke to Macon Phillips, the White House's director
of New Media, to discuss why the current administration is all
a buzz over social media. Here's how his team is using social
tools to engage with the public in the digital age:

How do you engage with the public differently on Twitter
vs. Facebook?
Just after the president gave his speech on the nation's state of
the union, we held a series of Twitter Q&A sessions with more
than 30 senior administration officials. We were able to do that
because Twitter is a much more conversational medium. Facebook,
rather, is a better place for sharing rich content. We see that
people regularly share our "photos of the day" and videos on
Facebook.

What is the strategy behind your use of
YouTube?
We've put together a series called "West Wing Week," which offers
an update on the President's weekly activities such as when he
travels and meets with foreign dignitaries, business groups,
veterans or staffers. In addition, we have another video series
called "The White House White Board," where we look in depth at
an issue like tax policy.

What is the White House's most popular content to
socialize?
We worked with the White House Photography Office early on to set
up our President on Flickr. As a result, people can go to
Whitehouse.gov and sign up to get a photo of the day, which will
hit their inboxes every morning.

The President recently made headlines after his Google+
hangout attracted thousands of questions. What did you learn from
the experience?
The hangout session is something we
are planning to do more of, but it doesn't always have to involve
the President to be meaningful. In fact, we held a hang out right after that for Startup
America with Gene Sperling, the director of the National
Economic Council; Steve Case, the chairman of Startup America
and Aneesh Chopra, the White House's chief technology officer.
They were able to have a face-to-face conversation with
business owners around the country about what they're doing on
the frontlines and how the Obama administration can be as
responsive as possible to their needs.

What are the top social strategies you've learned that
entrepreneurs can also use to grow their businesses and
following?
Go out early and often. When it
comes to social media, we do have goals in mind. But we don't sit
around for weeks cobbling together an iron-clad plan before we
act. We go out there, listen, get feedback, iterate on that and
try to improve. It's as important to listen as it is to speak.

Timing is vital. One the most significant campaigns we
ran on Twitter was the #40dollars hashtag, which helped
crystallize how people viewed extending the payroll-tax cut.
It's about being aware of what's going on and understanding
that in the age of social media, you're just a participant.
It's not something that you can control.

What was the best social-media strategy you've seen
come out of the White House? Let us know in the
comments section.